Tag Archives: distribution

The first notable case or example from SXSW that I would like to share with you in more detail is from the session “The Link Between Social Media and the Box Office“, presented by David Herrin, Head of Research at the United Talent Agency. Herrin and his team have developed a tool called “Preact” which allows them to monitor social media conversations surrounding an upcoming movie, up to 365 days in advance. Tracking Dimensions Preact doesn’t measure views but what UTA calls “engagement”, i.e. the volume of posts regarding the movie. The resulting hits are classified into positive and negative

Last week I spent two days at this year’s re:publica conference (#rp12) in Berlin. re:publica conferences focus on all kinds of issues around the web, in particular on blogging, social media, and digital media’s effect on society. This year, re:publica’s topic strands included law & politics, education, innovation, civil action, health, and entertainment, and how each of these areas have been impacted by recent developments in digital media.

[NB: While I’m talking specifically about the (US) TV industry in this post, the principle of direct global distribution to reach the global audience is applicable for pretty much any medium that can be digitized.] In this blog, I have again and again referred to a variety of trends that currently impact entertainment consumption around the world immensely. I will not go into detail on each of these because I have done so before, but I will compile them in a quick re-cap so we’re all on the same page:

In case you couldn’t make this year’s StoryWorld Conference in San Francisco, I’ll be offering a few short re-caps of key talks and themes throughout the next three days. Here we go. DAY 1 – Morning Key Themes: The story remains crucial to transmedia. A transmedia project should not originate from the desire to make use of new technology, but from the desire to tell a captivating story. After centuries of ‘broadcasting’ (radio, TV, film, publishing, etc. – offering mass content to isolated consumers) storytelling now returns to its social roots, particularly due to new media’s possibilities to share content.

Needless to say, today’s workshops at DIYDays LA were filled to the brim with great speakers and innovative perspectives. For those that couldn’t attend today’s workshops, here’s a re-cap of the most important bits: Common Points There were a few common themes mentioned in almost every talk I attended, and they were all based on experiences (good and bad) from existing projects: 1. Your audience consists of three main groups: Casual consumers (around 70% of your audience), active consumers (25-30%) and enthusiasts (5-10%). Your transmedia strategy must try to lead your audience members from casual to active consumers, and ideally

As the concept of transmedia storytelling becomes increasingly mainstream it is important that we do not lose ourselves in continuous debates on what transmedia storytelling is and what it is not. It is relatively easy to theorize and predict with no end; what is considerably harder, however, is to turn all this transmedia theory into practical advice. Granted, we are still experimenting a lot with what works and what doesn’t, but I do believe that it is important to begin to compile transmedia successes, basic economic mechanisms, and common-sense into manuals, guide-books, and/or best-practice sets. What follows is my attempt

Today saw two very important and very similar announcements by two key players in the entertainment industry: YouTube announced the launch of Merch Store, a tool that allows artists sell their merchandise, concert tickets, and more, whilst Amazon declared that it will also start publishing – both digitally and physically – starting with 122 books coming this fall. These two revelations come only six months after Netflix announced its plan to enter the original content business, and less than two weeks after YouTube publicized its original content deal with Tony Hawk and Warner Bros., amongst others.

At last night’s Transmedia LA meetup, Kent Nichols, Partner Outreach at blip.tv, shared a few very important ground rules for producers trying to self-distribute online. Kent is a videomaker and producer himself, and some of his projects include the award-winning series Ask A Ninja as well as the all-new The Guilty Crafter. blip.tv specializes in serialized online content, and as Partner Outreach Kent helps producers (for free!) to identify the right set of practices to find an audience online, an more particularly, to find their critical mass.

Tonight it was time for another ad-hoc Transmedia LA Meetup. This time the guest was Prof. Henry Jenkins, one of the earliest thought-leaders on transmedia and convergence culture. I am basing the following paragraphs solely on the notes I took during Henry’s talk, so they are no word-for-word transcription. As a matter of fact, I will be paraphrasing most of the time. If you see phrases or sentences in quotation marks, they denote a word-for-word citation, but everything else is just summing up Henry’s words.